According to CNBC.com, the British Bankers’ Association reported that UK mortgage approvals picked up in January from near record low numbers.

More specifically, mortgage approvals in the UK rose from 42,343 in December 2007 to 44, 288 in January of this year. The net mortgage lending also rose from 4.9 billion Pounds in December of 2007 to 5.2 billion Pounds in January.

In the article, the Bank of England policymaker, Kate Barker, further made the encouraging statement that a recession in the UK remains an unlikely prospect.

On the other hand, Alan Monks, an economist at JP Morgan commented, “With credit conditions likely to continue tightening, and the growing expectation that house prices will fall this year, we would still expect to see some further declines in house purchase activity looking forward.” However, he added, “But the rise in the BBA (British Bankers’ Association mortgage approvals) provides some tentative signs that we may be close to the bottom of the current slowing in house purchase activity.”

Mortgage approval rates are widely seen as a forward-looking indicator, and it was reported that the Pound rose in value when news of the approval rate increase was announced, reflecting an increase in confidence in the economy.

The Bank of England has reduced borrowing costs to 5.25% so far in 2008 and economists predict that the interest rates will be reduced further to 4.75% by the end of the year.

One of my new debt blog finds is debtconsolidationcare.com . This site is definitely interesting. It is a getting out of debt community. There a lot of useful tools at this site. There are some finance calculators including a debt to credit ratio one. (don’t ask about my obsession with calculators, i am a little quirky). Debtconsolidationcare.com even has a nice chat room. I think that could be handy if you have a quick question or thought and need some immediate feedback. I like the way it is set up because even if no one else is on, you can run it in the background and get a nice little ding when someone enters the room. You can even do a little private chat. I am glad I came across it. There are some really good tips on there.

Statistics Canada has gobs of interesting information about how Canadians are doing financially. If you’re from the U.S., we’re doing marginally better in the north, but quickly heading into your kind of trouble.

Did you know that 25 years ago, 39 percent of us were spending MORE than our pre-tax income. Uh-huh. More than our pre-tax income. What were we thinking?

Things are better now though. NOT.

Nineteen years later, 47 percent of us were spending more than our pretax income. Wow! That’s almost half of Canadians spending more than their gross income. How is that even possible?

Credit.

Yup, you can spend more money than you make if you have access to credit. And most of us do.

Well, we’ve had a booming economy for the last six years, so things are probably better now, right?

• In 1999, Canadian families had over $29 million in line of credit debt. By 2005, that had grown 133 percent to almost $40 million.
• In 1999, Canadian families had over $16 million in credit card and installment loan debt. By 2005 that had grown by over 58 percent to almost $26 million.
• In 1999, Canadian families had over $32 million in vehicle loan debt. By 2005 that had grown by over 41 percent to over $46 million.
• In 1999, Canadian families had over $17 million in vehicle loan debt. By 2005 that had grown by almost 16 percent to almost $20 million.
• In 1999, Canadian families had over $21 million in other debt. By 2005 that had grown by over 32 percent to over $28 million.

Add it up… $40 million + $26 million + $46 million + $20 million + $28 million = $160 million in debt spread over approximately 7.5 million Canadian families. That doesn’t include mortgages! And since there are lots of us that don’t have huge debt loads, think what that means for the poor people who do.

So, are you a credit sap? Are you one of these statistics, spending more money than you make, living beyond your means, buying today’s goods and services with money you may or may not earn tomorrow? And are you happy about the amount of interest you’re paying? Do you even know how much interest you’re paying?

You don’t have to live in debt. You can change your life. But you have to really want to. And you have to accept that you’re going to find it hard to do.

It will be hard. But if you have the gumption, you can do it. I know you can.

The first thing you have to do is take all your credit cards but one and cut them up. Include your department store cards. And unless you’re getting a discount on gas, include your all your gas cards too.

Next, take the credit card you’ve kept and put it somewhere hard to reach - freeze it, bury it in the backyard, throw it behind the refrigerator.

Now you’re on your way.

What’s next? You’ll have to make a budget, create a debt repayment plan, and rebuild your credit history (if you’ve made it messy). And you should negotiate with your creditors to either consolidate your debt at a lower cost, or reduce the amount of interest you’re paying on your various forms of credit.

Most important, you have to stop shopping. Make a promise to yourself that you won’t buy another unessential thing (so nothing beyond what it takes to keep body and soul together) until you’re out of debt.

All the tools you need to achieve a debt-free life are here on this website. If there’s something you can’t find, let me know (through Questions) and I’ll try to help.

So, are you ready to be debt free? Is 2008 the year you’re going to do it? Great! Make me proud.

BTW: I know I still owe you an answer from yesterday’s blog, but you’ll have to be patient. I’m giving all the people who are figuring out what they’re spending some time to do their numbers. Stay tuned.

Some people have been wondering what credit counseling is and how it can work for you in terms of getting out of credit card debt . Credit counseling itself is a creation that was funded by the credit card industry believe it or not.

They did this because they needed to come up with a solid way of getting paid by the people that were unable to pay down all of their credit card debt. Rather than the hassle of sending lawyers and collection agencies to people in order to get their money, they invented this system for people to go in order for them to be able to still get paid. In the end they still get all of what they is owed by people plus the interest of the payments. It is something that has actually made them a lot more money then you would be led to believe.

Usually, a credit counseling agency will attempt to get you a lower interest rate on your
credit cards in order to coax you into paying them down. The creditors do not have to accept these terms and can easily reject you, but this is usually based upon your own financial situation and the type of relationship that the credit counseling agency you go with has with your debtors. More often then not, these credit counseling agencies will have a relationship already with these major creditors and already know how much money that they will get as a result of working with them and how much the interest rate will be reduced because of it.

You can usually expect to pay back your entire balance on the debt that you owe and anywhere between six and twelve percent of the interest.

This is about half of what your normal interest would be. Again, they do not have to do any of this, but it is what typically will occur when you go through a credit counseling service. When you speak with the potential credit counseling agency be sure that you get all the exact terms and conditions from them. They will usually try to have all of your late payment fees reverted, but this tends to happen when you have a proven track record of about half of a year with them of solid payments.

If a credit card settlement agency refers to itself as a non profit organization takes that with a grain of salt. They still spend a lot of money on advertising and salaries and such for their employees so it still very much is a business to them. Non profit in and of itself does not mean they are honest and good people either. It is imperative to do your research on any company that you try and get to work with you. If you take a look at the better business bureau records for the company you are researching, you should be able to get a decent indication on whether or not the company is a good one.

Consolidate Credit Card Debt

These companies will make their money in a lot of different ways. They will usually just charge you a set up fee and a monthly fee that is rolled into your monthly payments. In addition to this they will also get a fair share percentage of what they recover from you from the credit companies they are paying off your debt to. In order for any of this stuff to actually work you need to make certain that you have a very steady income to pay off your normal monthly bills. When you start their program make certain that the payment is sent in with enough time left in the month in order to send out your payments to your outstanding creditors and debts.
If you do not do this you will end up being charged with additional late fees and could hurt your credit rating even further then you already have hurt it.

You have to stay enrolled in this credit counseling service until all of your outstanding debt has been paid in full along with any interest that has built up over time. It depends a lot on how much debt that you have built up on to yourself, but using a credit card debt consolidation service will mean that you will end up paying down all of your debt anywhere between two years and eight years from the point of which you began it. You are still going to have to pay off everything you owe plus the interest that has built up on it over a period of time, but this is the way to go if you are looking for an easy way of making only a single payment each month and don’t mind having to pay back everything you owe to the companies that you owe it all to.

You should realize that around at least seventy percent or so of the people that join these types of credit counseling programs will fail to ever finish them. This is usually because it only takes you having missed one payment to be removed from the program.

So only do this if you know that you have a steady income stream coming in. If that happens the credit card company will report it all to the credit bureaus and when they find out that you are participating in a credit card counseling service you are most certainly going to have a tough time going about getting any credit. A lot of credit card companies will treat credit counseling services just like you were a bankrupt individual so it is not always the best route to take and requires a fair degree of time and care to make sure you do not fall into that trap. You need to make sure that you always explore all of the options that are available and never allow yourself to fall into the trap of thinking that it is more difficult for you to get debt relief if you have filed for bankruptcy in the past.

Before you go about getting yourself involved in a credit counseling service or agency be sure that it is the perfect fit for your particular situation. After that make sure that the service that you go with is in good standing or you are going to set yourself up for failure in the long run. Just like any product or service that you would be looking to get be sure to always do all of your research and find the best one that will work the best for you. If you find yourself to be in a financial situation it would be best advised to seek out debt settlement first before going about credit counseling.

My best friend has gotten himself into quite a financial dilemma. He has not been very smart with credit card purchases. He is over five thousand dollars in debt just in credit cards.

The interest alone is killing him. Recently, he was in the process of transferring jobs when the whole thing fell apart. It put him in even more of a difficult situation. His employer obviously did not like his decision to look for a new job. As a result, my best friend lost his job.

Here he is in major debt and now he does not even have a job. That was a tough few days to be around him. Right now he is out searching for a more long term and better paying job, but for the time being he is working at the local office supply store to make some money.

To help him get a hold of the problem and obtain some debt consolidation, I have let him move in with me. For the first couple of months, I am going to let him live with me for free. I hope the idea does not backfire on me. This way he can save about nine hundred a month on rent payments.

The studio apartment he was living in is an unnecessary cost at this point. We sat down the other night and went over his finances. It will take him four or five months to pay off the credit cards and be debt free.

First, he needs to find a new job. The temporary office supply job is not going to provide him with any stability. I am happy to see he is out making money rather than sitting around unemployed, but he needs to get going on another full-time job.

The debt consolidation is only going to help him if he starts to save money after paying off his bills. Unfortunately, the money he is making now is not enough to start saving. Everything will go to bills. He has a job interview with a local sports marketing company on Thursday, so I am hoping it goes well and he gets the job.

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by Robert Wise

A student loans debt consolidation provides the student with the chance to secure their interest rate at a fixed level for the entire duration of the loan. It also combines the various loans together and therefore creates just one payment each month. This is a much simpler procedure to follow. These benefits are encouraging more and more students to consider student loans consolidation as an option to deal with multiple loans more effectively.

Student loans of those living in the United States are consolidated in a different manner from other types of debt such as credit cards. Federal loans, which originate from the government, are guaranteed 100% by the United States. When a company which specializes in loan consolidations buys out existing federal loans, they then become consolidated. The rate of interest to be charged for this type of loan is determined by the student loan rate as of the month of May in the year in question.

Potential interest rates can vary from as low as 4.7 % to as high as 8.25%, so it is important for students to monitor fluctuations, and if possible, apply for their student loans consolidation when the rates are as low as possible. This will be to their benefit, as students will then have an affordable interest rate for the duration of the term of their school loans. If you are a student, keep an eye on the interest rates to take advantage of the lowest rates when they become available.

Loan debt consolidation, however, is not an endless money pit. You have only one opportunity to make the right decision, so be sure to do your homework accordingly. Consolidation is allowed once with a private lender and just once again with the Department of Education. There are many consolidation companies for you to research in order to find a reputable one offering the lowest rates you can get.

If debt is consuming your life and paying the bills each month is like pushing a rock uphill one solution may be a credit counseling service specializing in the consolidation of debt. These type of companies can offer advice to help you in establishing a budget, giving tips and instruction on using credit wisely, show you a plan to track your bills and manage money more efficiently. Face it most of us went through school without any financial education.

These consumer money specialist who are trained along with certified can review your financial condition, if appropriate they can help arrange a plan for repayment to your creditors that will help get back on track financially.

After reviewing several companies and make a selection be prepared to lay it all out on the table. You cannot get healthy financially unless you come clean! You’ll need to provide your financials, everything from income, debts and expenses. This can seem painful as you get a true picture of where you sit in the world of money and debt, but this is a great opportunity to learn about money.

Your credit counselor takes all the information you provide, crunches the numbers, evaluates the information then sits down to discuss your current financial condition. During the discussion you should receive some recommendations along with the most appropriate consolidation advice based on the information provided for your situation.

To help you get a better handle on your financial issues one piece of advice may be to take a class on money, you may not want to wait by checking with your local community college, a financial education will only benefit you long term. Another suggestion may include signing up for a debt-management/ debt repayment plan.

Be prepared, your debt adviser may refer you to another organization, like one specialized in relationship counseling. These debt counselors understand that very often there are other factors hiding below the surface, which lead to financial struggles, and these factors impact other areas of your life.

When selecting a debt consolidation company look for one that can provide you with a list of satisfied clients you can contact, gives personalized service with trained counselors, can help you become educated on how to make better financial decisions and can provide tools to assist you in your efforts to achieve financial security. For example if you are saddled with a pile of credit card debt the simplest solution could be a balance transfer card with 0% interest for 12 months like the Visa Card with balance transfer.

Do not fall for companies with advertising campaign as the best and only option. In fact, you should probably steer clear of telephone calls or e-mails arriving from nowhere offering their services. The best choice often comes from word of mouth and past clients. Take the time and choose wisely - your financial future is at stake.

I  have been an account executive in the bank for more than a decade. I have been handling different Bad Credit Offers. As well as analyzing Credit Cards and loan applications. Most newly weds apply for Home Loans with 10.5% interest per annum mortgaged for 30 years. Yuppies on the other hand, usually apply for auto loans since they will be needing the car in their work and during friends night out.

I have been planning to have a housing loan but I have been used moving from place to place. I usually find living in a house for 2 years consecutive- boring. Since I am still a bachelor moving in and out of different units is just as natural as going to work everyday. I have a car but the money used to buy my car didn’t come from the bank but from an inheritance. Paying the monthly dues will be easy if you have a stable income, the problem comes when one got terminated and the monthly dues piled up until the bank seize the house or the car.